Experimental Study on 2D Freezing in Saturated Soils
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 35, Issue 2
Abstract
Extensive frost heave problems deriving from 2D freezing occurred behind retaining structures. A novel test apparatus was thus developed to observe frost heave behaviors governed by 2D growth of an ice lens. The results obtained showed that the moving characteristics of the freezing front, the frost heave process, and the change of water distribution were similar with that found in 1D freezing. However, the ice lens-dependent frost heave in 2D freezing accounted for less than 75% of that in 1D freezing due to the strong interactions between the frozen zone, the unfrozen zone, and the neighboring constraints. The geometry of an ice lens in 2D freezing within soil specimen was an arc. The relationship between geometry of ice lens and its location coordinate satisfied a parabolic function. The growth rate of ice lens perpendicular to thermal gradient was usually restrained in 1D freezing, whereas it made up nearly 100% of that parallel to thermal gradient in 2D freezing. The observations on anisotropic growth of ice lens in 2D freezing have significances to develop a frost heave model for coupled heat and mass transfer.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51304209).
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
- dV, dH
- vertical and horizontal distances of initiation position of ice lens away from coordinate origin;
- Tcold, Twarm
- cold and warm end temperatures;
- t
- freeing time;
- V, A, A′
- volume of water intake, cross-section area of soils specimen, and ice lens cross-section area facing camera;
- x, y, z
- three coordinate components;
- δ
- measured frost heave parallel to thermal gradient; and
- thickness of ice lens facing camera and its components along x and y directions.
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Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 35 • Issue 2 • June 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 1, 2020
Accepted: Dec 11, 2020
Published online: Feb 3, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jul 3, 2021
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